Heroic Defeats: The Politics of Job Loss

by Miriam A. Golden

Overview

Heroic Defeats is a comparative investigation of how unions and firms interact when economic circumstances require substantial job loss. Using simple game theory to generate testable propositions about when these situations will result in industrial conflict, Professor Golden illustrates the theory in a range of situations between 1950 and 1985 in Japan, Italy, and Britain. Additionally, the author shows how the theory explains why strikes over job loss almost never occur in postwar unionized firms in the United States.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521484329
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/13/1996
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.46(h) x 0.71(d)

Table of Contents

1. The puzzle of union responses to workforce reductions; 2. Games analyzing job loss; 3. Job loss in the Italian and British automobile industries; 4. Triggers of industrial action; 5. Pit closures in the Japanese and British mining industries; 6. Seeking allies: how other actors affect interactions over job loss; 7. Conclusions.

Editorial Reviews

"...Heroic Defeats is well worth reading..." Chris Tilly, American Journal of Sociology

"The bibliography will prove enormously helpful to the latter. Upper-division undergraduate through professional." Choice

"Heroic Defeats is an important book, both for what it tells us about strikes and for what it tells us about the strengths and limitations of the methodological approach within political science known as ‘rational choice'." Chris Howell, Industrial & Labor Relations Review

"In general, the book illuminates a number of the factors at play in job loss situations...the book is well written, illuminating, and clear. I recommend it to all with an interest in the issues covered." Bruce Nissen, Labor Studies Journal

From the Publisher